Liquid distributors of this kind are used for example in refrigeration plants. Refrigeration plants have achieved enormous growth rates in the market over the past years. Longer cooling chains in the food industry, higher process performances and more comfortable living and working conditions require new efficient refrigeration plants. Here electrically driven compression plants, which can be supplemented by thermally driven absorption and adsorption processes, are dominant. The latter, in particular against the background of increased efficiency of energy usage also for enhancing CHP plants (CHP—power-heat coupling), represent a resource-saving solution for not additionally increasing the power demand during cold utilisation and instead for using the waste heat resulting from power production directly for refrigeration.
Supply systems with a liquid distributor can be divided into essentially two classes. A difference is made between spraying systems and drip-off systems. Spraying systems as a rule require pre-pressure in the inflow of the spraying device which, dependent on the nozzle shape, is a multiple of the pressure required by drip-off pressure-free systems. For these systems a small hydrostatic height above a drip-off device is sufficient. Pressure-free systems, due to their characteristic of utilising gravity, can supply only from above, whereas pressure-based systems can also spray from the bottom to the top or to the side. A liquid distributor of the pressure-free type is known from document DE 10 2004 012 276 A1.
Generally speaking pressure-free systems have the advantage that no energy has to be spent on pressurising the fluid, and that the flown-through cross-sections of most pressure-free systems are a multiple of the nozzle diameters of pressurised spraying systems, so that the systems react to and function less sensitively in the face of solid fractions in the fluid. However, previously known pressure-free drip-off systems are faced with having to fight contamination. With the known liquid distributor in document DE 10 2004 012 276 A1, the inflow into a channel, at the lower end of which the drip-off point is arranged, is positioned significantly above the trough in which the fluid resides (flows), so that solids gather at the bottom of the trough.
In document DD 266 699 A3 a liquid distributor has been disclosed, in which at least two horizontally parallel perforated plates are arranged one above the other at a distance ensuring the capillary effect, wherein capillary fluid ducts protrude through the perforations of the lower plate in a downward direction. The liquid is discharged in that, due to the capillary effect, it travels through holes in the upper plate into an intermediate space between the upper and the lower plate. In the intermediate space the liquid again distributes based on the capillary effect in order, again making use of this effect, to be discharged through holes in the lower plate, wherein capillary fluid ducts are pushed into the holes of the lower plate. Liquid transport from the topside of the upper plate to the underside of the lower plate through the plate arrangement is effected always utilising the capillary effect. The problem here is that the capillary spaces get shifted in operation so that functionality of the liquid distributor is negatively affected.
Document DE 10 2005 028 902 A1 has disclosed a heat exchanger and a method for manufacturing the same, wherein the heat exchanger comprises an intermediate layer for cooling a heat source. The intermediate layer is coupled to a heat source and designed to guide a fluid through it. The heat exchanger further comprises a distributor layer, which is coupled to the intermediate layer. The distributor layer comprises at least one first connection coupled to a first group of individual holes, which channel fluid through the first group. The distributor layer comprises at least one second connection coupled to a second group of individual holes, which channel fluid through the second group. The first group of holes and the second group of holes are arranged to provide a minimised fluid path length between the first and the second connection in order to provide adequate cooling to the heat source. Preferably each hole in the first group is arranged at a closest optimal distance to an adjacent hole of the second group.
Document DE 11 51 491 A has disclosed a device for evenly distributing a fluid and vapour mixture across a contact bed of solid body particles. The mixture flows through the reactor from the top to the bottom. A distributor base provided with openings is provided in the upper part of the reactor. Furthermore open-top permeable baskets are formed, which are arranged in the upper boundary layer of the solid body bed.